skrud.net » music

Things I Love About Montreal

Skrud — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 05:12:09 +0000

While walking home with Harley today, we were headed up Bleury when suddenly we heard some awesome sounding music. Following our ears, we ended up at the Bell Stage of the Jazz Fest, where a band called Artist of the Year were playing. They were awesome, so we stuck around for the rest of their set.

Continuing up Bleury, we reached the corner of Parc. While walking down towards Hutchison we heard some live jazz coming from Café Delifrance on the corner. Walked inside, and it turns out there was a “Jazz Jam” going on until 3am. It was incredible. There were seemingly random folk from the audience swapping places with the band members and jamming and improvising. We paid the $3 cover and got ourselves each a pint of Bierbrier and stuck around until about 1am taking in the tunes.

We live in the best city on the planet*.

* I haven’t been to every city on the planet.

Soundtrack To My Life

Skrud — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 11:58:00 +0000

I’m copying this meme from Heather:

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?

Open your music library
Put it on shuffle
Press play
For every question, type the song that’s playing
When you go to a new question, press the next button

(I have some 6384 songs on my iPod. It’s not as much as on my desktop computer but I think it’ll still make an effective demonstration)

Opening Credits: Nyana by Tiesto
Waking up: I Refuse by Falconer (how fitting)
First Day at Highschool: Singers At The World’s Dawn by Ark
Falling In Love: Beyond Salvation by Evergrey
Fight Song: Hybrid Blues by Skyclad (something tells me this’ll be the fight scene where I go down in a blaze of getting my ass kicked, in the rain, and covered in mud)
Breaking Up: Former Sisters by Terra Rosa (…wtf…)
Prom: Ghost Love Score (Orchestra Version) by Nightwish. (So my prom is a giant epic period affair backed by a symphony).
Life: Wishful Thinking by John Petrucci
Mental Breakdown: Asteroid Dominion by Armageddon
Driving: Cold Metal (Single Version) by Ambeon (“lying on my back on the railway / looking at the sky and its full moon / in the back of my head I feel the rolling wheels, shaking my memories” … eek)
Flashback: Play Dead by HIM
Getting Back Together: Savage by Cacophony (Hey, any relationship loaded with guitar solos is worth saving)
Wedding: Into The Sun by Magnitude 9
Birth of Child: Through the Ice Age by Kiuas (My kid is *so* battling vikings on the way out of the womb)
Final Battle: Once in a Lifetime by Dragonforce (Fast. Triumphant. Rock on.)
Death Scene: Suffocating Sight by Trivium
Funeral Song: Forest of October by Opeth (It’ll be a long funeral)
End Credits: Lake Bodom [live] by Children of Bodom (Best. End Credits. Ever.)

Nintendoculture: Minibosses, Freezepop and Touchboy

Skrud — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 23:00:00 +0000

Following the Arcadia Festival was the Minibosses concert at Club Soda. Last year, the Minibosses played at the festival itself – but I think the idea of having a separate show at a club was a good one, since it allowed for more performing artists.

DJ/Mixer Touchboy started things off with an upbeat electronic blend of Gameboy sounds and techno beats. It was some pretty good stuff, though doesn’t make for much of a visual show. That’s where Harley and I realized that it’s great music to listen to while playing video games, and started playing some competitive Tetris DS.

The next band was Freezepop, which I instantly fell in love with. The music is entirely uncharacteristic for me: electro/synth pop that sounds like Depeche Mode crossed with a Gameboy. Their music is recorded almost entirely on a Yamaha QY70, a curious portable device that itself resembles a Gameboy. The music has this 8-bit, cheesy, bubblegum-pop meets femme-bot quality to it. It’s addictive, simple but not overly simplistic, and fun. After the set I rushed to buy both full length albums, Fancy Ultra-Fresh and Freezepop Forever along with a T-shirt – and got a free EP and poster, too.

Freezepop has been in a few Playstation games, including both Guitar Hero games with the songs Get Ready 2 Rokk and Less Talk More Rokk – so it’s entirely possible that you’ve heard them before. According to the official website, they’re “Hip enough for hipsters but nerdy enough for nerds.”

Finally the Minibosses took the stage, playing music from tons of NES classics like Mario 2 (aka Doki Doki Panic), Castlevania, Metroid, Mike Tyson’s Punchout and Contra, among others. What was most surprising about the Minibosses was the mosh pit that opened up … It’s Contra, not Slayer! It was a violent mosh pit, but it was pretty damn big for a place like Club Soda. I’ve seen smaller mosh pits at death metal shows.

The entire concert, and the Arcadia Festival in general, was infused with love for Nintendo. It’s as if all the people that grew up with Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda and The Wizard came out of their hiding places showing off the impact that Nintendo has had on them. Most people were wearing t-shirts with Mario or Zelda references and – this the best part – whenever a slow song was being played, instead of holding up lighters, people set the brightness level on their DS Lites all the way up and waved them around.

Nerdy? Hells yes. But it’s also awesome.

Testament

Skrud — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 22:38:00 +0000

Following the dilemma and subsequent decision I ended up going to the Testament concert with my backstage passes. They played an awesome set of mostly old-school songs, much to the delight of the audience (now if only another legendary band would get the hint).

(The crappy picture is courtesy of Mike Metal, but so were the backstage passes :D)

That large pizza-eating behemoth in the back is none other than Chuck Billy and that guy standing next to me is guitar genius Alex Skolnick. And that picture wasn’t taken backstage, as you can see… it was taken on the tour bus.

So to those of you who actually went to the Suicide Girls show, how was it?

The Decision Has Been Made

Skrud — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 05:28:00 +0000

I’m lucky. Sometimes the toughest decisions are made for me.

While I was attending the Alex Skolnick Trio performance tonight (which was absolutely incredible, by the way) I was seriously contemplating the fact that I really need to see this guy rock out and pitting it against the possibilities of the Suicide Girls Live show.

After the first set, they had a random draw for a door prize. The prizes were supposed to be signed Testament DVDs, but Alex forgot the DVDs back home. So they decided to raise the stakes and give away backstage passes to the Testament concert.

And I won.

Backstage passes to a legendary metal band trumps hot naked goth chicks.